Lo­cal he­roes to get de­served recog­ni­tion

More na­tional hon­ours for com­mu­nity vol­un­teers

THE LORD Lieu­tenant of Buck­ing­hamshire is back­ing a move to un­cover more un­sung he­roes in the county.

Sir Henry AubreyFletcher has set up a county Hon­ours Com­mit­tee to make sure a broader reach of peo­ple who give ex­cep­tional ser­vice to the com­mu­nity get royal recog­ni­tion.

They are invit­ing res­i­dents, vol­un­tary groups, com­mu­nity or­gan­i­sa­tions and busi­nesses to put for­ward peo­ple from Buck­ing­hamshire and Milton Keynes they con­sider should be hon­oured and who might be el­i­gi­ble for a na­tional hon­our.

Com­mit­tee

chair­man Alexan­der Boswell said that with around 60,000 vol­un­teers serv­ing in al­most 4,000 vol­un­tary and com­mu­nity or­gan­i­sa­tions, he was sure Buck­ing­hamshire had more than its fair share of peo­ple who de­serve recog­ni­tion.

He said: “Of course, it’s nat­u­ral to hon­our celebri­ties, but there are many peo­ple lo­cally who give un­stint­ing ser­vice.”

“We want to see many more peo­ple at lo­cal level, re­flect­ing the di­ver­sity of our com­mu­ni­ties, get­ting the recog­ni­tion they de­serve.”

Re­gional hon­ours have tra­di­tion­ally come in the form of an OBE or MBE, but the com­mit­tee is en­cour­ag­ing nom­i­na­tions for the Bri­tish Em­pire Medal (BEM), re­cently re­in­stated by the Queen, for those who have ex­celled with hands-on work in their lo­cal com­mu­nity.

“We want to hear from lo­cal groups about their un­sung he­roes – peo­ple who have spent their lives work­ing for the good of the com­mu­nity and have brought about change for the ben­e­fit of oth­ers.”

Ear­lier this year five Buck­ing­hamshire res­i­dents were hon­oured with the BEM for their out­stand­ing vol­un­tary com­mu­nity work – Mrs Mar­garet Dykes and Mr Tony Hoare, of Chal­font St Giles, Mrs Va­lerie McPher­son, of Long­wick, Mrs Lesley Turner, of Wooburn Green, and Mrs Sally Wil­liams, of Bourne End. And in the re­cent Queen’s Birth­day Hon­ours two Buck­ing­hamshire res­i­dents were made Mem­bers of the Or­der of the Bri­tish Em­pire (MBE): Mrs Sally Ash, of Bea­cons­field, for her life­time con­tri­bu­tion as a vol­un­teer to Bri­tain’s in­land wa­ter­ways, and Mr John Wil­son, of High Wy­combe, for ser­vices to box­ing, young peo­ple and